The invention concerns a device for coherent addition of laser beams and, more particularly, a device for the phase adjustment and coherent addition of beams from laser networks.
The combination of a set of emitters in a laser network is an advantageous method of increasing the power output of a laser source. Very powerful sources can be obtained by combining low power components, which are technically easier to make. Moreover, the use of multiple sources of reduced power facilitates the removal of heat inevitably produced. On the other hand, the principal properties of a laser beam (coherence, directivity) are lost in a network unless the phase relation between the different lasers is stable.